The Election Issue #95
Imagining India as an energy-independent country, trouble for EVs and other powerful stories.
The Big Picture
Both Congress and BJP have released their election manifestos.
Among other things, the BJP has promised to make India an energy-independent country by 2047.
“The party's election manifesto released on Sunday asserted that it would reduce petroleum imports through a mix of electric mobility, a network of charging stations, renewable energy production and improving energy efficiency,” reported Economic Times, and added: “Among other plans that would help fulfil the BJP's energy independence dream are increasing ethanol in fuel, expanding nuclear energy, developing battery energy storage system infrastructure, and increasing green hydrogen production.”
In contrast, Congress has promised a new green deal, saying: “We will launch a Green New Deal Investment Programme focused on renewable energy, sustainable infrastructure and the creation of green jobs.” It has also said: “We will promote green energy. We will implement renewable energy schemes that will make the panchayats or municipalities self-sufficient in electricity as far as possible. We will promote solar-powered engines for tapping groundwater for agriculture.”
That is on energy. How do the two parties compare on environment and climate change?
The BJP promises to protect coastal communities by “building resilience” against climate change; seeks to expand the green credits programme; promises to clean (and revive) all major rivers; curb water pollution; improve air quality; promote afforestation and agroforestry; protect Himalayan ecology; manage human-animal conflict; and push for better e-waste management.
The Congress has promised an independent environmental protection and climate change authority. It has also promised to crack down on air and water pollution; to manage water stocks better; to protect hills, forests and coastal zones; to boost the adoption of LPG cylinders; and to set up a green transition fund. Animal protection also finds a mention. “We will not limit disaster management to humans and will expand it to include other vulnerable lives such as wild animals, domestic animals, pets and livestock,” says its manifesto, and mentions worsening human-animal conflict as well.
One reads these documents and feels sombre. In the past 15 years, neither party has shown any sign of environmental stewardship. For all its talk about coastal resilience, hill districts and what have you, the BJP has pushed ahead with port projects, the Great Nicobar Transhipment Port; continued to push fossil fuels; pushed ahead with coal expansion, even in forests; introduced a flawed Green Credits programme; and Char Dham Pariyojana. Even 10 years after Namami Gange, the Ganga continues to be polluted. On the whole, India has lost environmental resilience over the past 10 years.
Similar fusillades need to be launched at the Congress as well. The idea of an independent environment authority is a good one — but one that the Congress neglected to implement while in power. This long read from 2014 contains some details. See, too, this interview, again from 2014, with academic William Lockhart, who studied India’s environmental clearance process. It also discusses the idea of creating an independent environment authority — like the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Under the Congress, fudging of forest stats continued unabated, as did deforestation. Between the twain, India is said to have lost 2.33 million hectares of forestland since 2000.
This carping is not to induce hopelessness and cynicism. It seeks to, at one level, warn us against empty optimism. The kind that derives cheer saying “climate change has made to party manifestos”. That is not good enough. Twenty years ago, with its back to the wall against a BJP which seemed invincible, the Congress had produced a progressive manifesto that resulted in NREGA, FRA and RTI. We don’t know if history will repeat itself. What is more incontrovertible is that the country’s ecological foundations are rapidly fraying. Whichever party comes to power, it has to address these questions of joblessness, climate resilience, water security, pollution, deforestation, and biodiversity loss.
PS: Check out these ground reports at the intersection of energy, climate and politics.
Inequality, agrarian distress and India’s coming elections. Low wages and Ludo: The Maharashtra Reality Check. (Mint)
Does a mining company respect the dead? This election report from Pakri Barwadih, NTPC’s huge captive coal block being mined by Thriveni Earthmovers, is worth a read. (Countercurrents). The firm continues to ply despite local complaints of huge environmental damage. Interestingly, Hazaribagh, where the block is located, is where, in 2018, BJP leader Jayant Sinha had garlanded the people who lynched Alimuddin Ansari. The block, essentially, is a microcosm of India. Extraction runs hand in hand with the politics of majoritarianism and distraction.
Election 2024: Where Do Forest Rights Matter? (Indiaspend)
Also read this Bloomberg comparison of the BJP and Congress manifestoes.
News of the Week
It has been an eventful week.
The Adani Group unveiled its massive solar plant in Khavda, Gujarat. Spanning 538 square kilometres, it’s five times the size of Paris (as we were told). It is projected to eventually house a whopping 30 GW of renewable power capacity. We already know that Reliance wants to eventually scale up to 100 GW capacity in renewable power as well. In these ways, India’s RE landscape is changing. Large RE capacities are coming in — all being erected by the country’s largest conglomerates, both of which are also setting up their own manufacturing lines (Adani, Reliance), with interests in power distribution as well. The pros and cons of these large evolutions have to be understood. This report at Climate Change News is one starting point.
In the meantime, as though out to provide light relief, the government continues to flip-flop between solar panel manufacturing and imports.
The Adani Group made headlines for another reason. It’s setting up a climate change think tank. Chin tan Research Foundation, reported Economic Times, will focus on “energy transition and climate change, economics and trade, and geopolitics and strategic affairs”. It might start work as early as next month, and will be incubated with an initial funding of Rs 100 crore.
Corporate-funded think tanks, as we know from the US, are a powerful instrument for lobbying. They provide the empirical basis for larger shifts in public policy. And so, this is a critical development.
The EV sector hit headlines repeatedly last week.
When the battery PLIs were announced, two factoids had surprised observers.
One, unknown firms — like Hyundai Global Motors (subsequently unmasked as a fraud) and gold refining firm Rajesh Exports — had bagged PLIs while established firms like Exide and Amara Raja had been left out. Even without government support, however, both firms decided to persevere with their plans. This raised further questions. If firms not getting the subsidy still felt competitive, was it large enough?
Last week came news that validated Exide’s decision to persevere. It will produce Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries for Hyundai and Kia as both firms try to boost localisation. One wonders, though, how Rajesh Exports is faring.
On the whole, the sector is gaining ground in India. Manufacturing capacities are coming up. On that, read this report from Hosur, Tamil Nadu, one of the biggest hubs of EV manufacturing in India. Citroen has become the first firm to export India-made EVs. Tesla might tie up with Reliance to make its electric cars in India.
And yet, concerns remain. As in the rest of the world, India’s EV market is throwing up mixed numbers. Most electric cars still target the top end of the market. As this newsletter had reported earlier, the Indian market will take off only when EVs start costing less than Rs 10 lakh.
For this reason, folks have been saying that EV adoption in India will be led by two-wheelers and three-wheelers. Even within that subset, however, there are disagreements. Yamaha, for instance, is betting on flex fuels (those blended with ethanol, etc) in India. “The company’s primary strategy to meet its emissions targets revolves around flex-fuel (E85) options for motorcycles, acknowledging the global shift towards sustainable fuels while avoiding the infrastructural and technological challenges of full electrification,” reported Mint.
Our changing planet
“With the arrival of the Northern Hemisphere spring, many Asian countries are facing an annual problem: dust storms. Late last month, people living in parts of China’s Inner Mongolia saw their skies turn murky yellow, according to state media. Residents were told to stay indoors as wind speeds reached 100 kilometres per hour and visibility was reduced to less than 90 metres. Over the weekend, people in Beijing were warned to shut windows and take precautions as dust approached the city after sweeping through parts of Mongolia and China's Inner Mongolia.”
From Lethal dust storms blanket Asia every spring — now AI could help predict them (Nature).
Also read this: A Study Reveals Trees Have Hidden Clocks—and They’ve Started Going Haywire (Popular Mechanics).
Photo Feature of the Week
The Caravan reports on five decades of industrial pollution at Ennore, Tamil Nadu.
Climate Podcast of the Week
Measles Is Back, and That Is Scary (Sciam)
Climate Long-reads
The rise of eco-anxiety: scientists wake up to the mental-health toll of climate change (Nature). Also see this editorial: What happens when climate change and the mental-health crisis collide?
Ghost roads and the destruction of Asia-Pacific tropical forests (Nature)
100 bustards and the challenge to India’s solar flight path (Mint)
The Inside Tale of Tesla’s Fall to Earth (WSJ). That said, Tesla is not the only electric car maker in trouble. For more on that, read this report.
Kyasanur Forest Disease: A ticking health bomb in the Western Ghats (Mongabay)
Geoengineering Test Quietly Launches Salt Crystals into Atmosphere (Sciam)
Extreme heat is pushing India to the brink of ‘survivability.’ One obvious solution is also a big part of the problem. CNN looks at ACs.
Climate crisis → drought → food deficit → migration (Nepali Times)
This delivery app takes away health insurance when workers don’t meet quotas (Rest of World). Fighting climate change is also about creating a more just world.
What if global emissions went down instead of up? An upbeat report from FT, which should be read in tandem with this downbeat piece from New Yorker: Is the Fight Against Climate Change Losing Momentum?
Book of the Week
In 2010, an explosion at Deepwater Horizon, an offshore oil rig owned by BP, released millions of tons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Shortly thereafter, raging at the environmental damage, writer Carl Safina travelled to the location. The next year, he produced a book that looked at the sequence of political and corporate misjudgements that had resulted in the blowout — and the chaotic rescue efforts that followed, in part because neither the administration nor BP were ready for such an event. This is A Sea In Flames: The Deepwater Horizon Oil Blowout.
Read an excerpt here.
View draft history